1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information distribution system for distributing electronic information such as electronic mail. In particular, the present invention relates to an information distribution apparatus and an information distribution method for mediating information distribution from a sending apparatus of an advertiser or the like to a receiving apparatus of a user or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent development of information equipment and a communication foundation, an environment in which anybody can easily utilize the Internet is being established. Along with this, so-called on-line shopping is generally conducted, in which a number of companies provide virtual shops on the Internet, and consumers access them.
When a consumer buys something or requests a catalogue at a virtual shop on the Internet, the consumer is required to input an electronic mail address for contact. After this, in most cases, an administrator, a publicity agent, or the like of the virtual shop periodically distributes advertising mail and the like to this electronic mail address.
In recent years, due to the rapid spread of mobile phones capable of using the Internet, an Internet access can be made at any place and at any time. Thus, it is expected that the use frequency of on-line shopping and the like is further increased. Furthermore, along with this, it is considered that the number of pieces of advertising mail received by consumers is increased.
However, advertising mail is sent from a service provider on the Internet in one way. Therefore, when the number of pieces of mail and the amount of information are increased, the following problem will occur on the receiving side.
Conventionally, a receiver cannot select mail to be downloaded from a mail server, and all the mail targeted for the receiver and accumulated at the mail server is downloaded. Thus, when the number of pieces of advertising mail and the amount of information thereof are increased, it will take much time for downloading mail from a mail server to a receiver's terminal. Particularly, in the case of a mobile phone terminal that generally adopts a charge system on an as-used basis, when the amount of information of advertising mail is increased, a cost burden on a receiver is increased.
Furthermore, when the number of pieces of advertising mail and the amount of information thereof are increased, it will take much time for a receiver to look through the contents thereof. Particularly, in the case of a mobile phone terminal, since a screen is small, the amount of information that can be displayed at a time is limited. Furthermore, compared with a mailer for a computer, an operation of the mobile phone terminal is complicated, so that the contents of a large amount of mail cannot be checked rapidly.
Conventionally, a system is known that is capable of rejecting reception of mail satisfying particular conditions. In this case, all the mail satisfying the conditions may be deleted uniformly, so that required information may be lost.
Furthermore, for example, JP 9(1997)-200254 discloses an electronic mail display apparatus in which the importance of received mail is determined in accordance with a previously stored rule, and each piece of mail in a list is displayed by a method previously set in accordance with the importance, whereby received mail is efficiently processed on a receiving side. This apparatus is predicated on downloading of the entire text of all the mail from a mail server. Therefore, the above-mentioned problem cannot be solved.